Ford V8 ignition resistor question

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Big D

Gidday Bruce,

I don’t know whether this will help but I had a similar problem with my Willys jeep which is on 6 volts. I’m with everyone else in thinking that it is the coil that is the cause of your problems.

My jeep used to start fine from cold but after about 30-40 minutes of useage it would just die. It would not restart unless I left the engine to cool for at least an hour. When the engine died I found that there was either no spark at the plugs or it would be an extremely weak spark.

What I did was to gradually go through the ignition system and replace a piece at a time in this order; plugs; points; rotor, condenser and then finally the coil.

What I never got around to trying was a suggestion from someone else in having a plastic bottle of water to squirt on the sides of the coil to cool it down quickly when hot, just so that we could immediately pinpoint that it was indeed the problem.

In the end I replaced the coil before trying this and the jeep hasn’t missed a beat since.

The bottle of water might be worth a go when it happens.

Cheers

Darryl

Thanks Darryl, what you say best describes what I've got going. I wish whatever is crapping out would just melt, or blow up so I would know what the problem is and fix it. So far, I've been trying to keep the engine compartment 'original' so I may try a new coil or, as was suggested, hide a modern 6V coil and run the wires through a dummy Ford one...for cosmetic purposes.

The water on the coil to cool it may not work. The coil IS cool. It's the resistor that causes third degree burns when I check it with my finger.

One last thing was the plugs. I ran heat range 8 plugs and had all sorts of starting problems. I changed to 10's and it made a world of difference. That's not the problem now though.

[Keith Webb]

On a F15A which had the helmet distributor. Would run OK for about 30 mins then conk out and not start until it had cooled. I changed the distributor, using an adaptor to fit a crab with a separate coil. Worked fine.

[Lynn Eades]

The resistor is supposed to get hot. Thats why it has the vented tin shield, and its wound on a ceramic core.
Like I said at the start, Change the bloody coil.
Cheers.